Watches & Cars: IWC Pilot’s Chronograph

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Aeronautics and automotive have always gone together well. Remember the Saab commercials, where they were compared to fighter jets? The ads were nonsense but they captured the hearts of many buyers who felt that their cars had some aeronautical DNA. But Saab isn’t the only car manufacturer to be built from the air. BMW very famously built airplane engines, that’s where its logo comes from — as it represents the spinning of a propeller. You know what else goes really well with cars? Watches. So what happens when you mix all three? Mechanical nirvana overload.

We’ve featured watches from Govberg before, as they specialize in pre-owned luxury watches that are kept in pristine condition and repaired only by certified technicians. This specific watch is the IWC Pilot’s Chronograph and there aren’t many watches that go better with a great car.

The IWC Pilot’s watch was originally developed back in 1936 and was the first pure purpose-built watch for aviation pilots and was worn by Swiss airmen during WWII. Today, the design has largely remained, with its simplistic face and large hands and numbers, so as to be easy to read at night while flying. However, it’s gotten larger since and the internals have changed considerably since the pre-war version.

Now sporting a self-winding automatic Sellita-based movement and chronograph complication, the IWC Pilot’s Chrono is far more accurate and reliable than its seemingly ancient predecessor. Yet it still has that old-world look, feel and charm. While the original has a 36mm case, this one sits at 42mm, which is a much more modern size. The original also had a rotating bezel, to time tasks with relative accuracy but this new one does with the rotating bezel and gets a chronograph function.

Its design is still fantastic today and looks great with it black alligator leather band. The stainless steel case, elegant crown and simple chronograph pushers are minimalist but look superb looking. It really works well with the subtle, handsome looks of a BMW, especially a classic.

Govberg is currently selling the beautiful Pilot’s Chrono for $4,450, which is a good price for such a superb watch with timeless looks and impeccable build quality. It has history in aviation, as does BMW, and has the sort of simplistic looks that go so well with cars from the Bavarians, especially classics. Give me an E28 M5 and an IWC Pilot’s watch and I’d be one happy guy.